Religion: First Australians

This massacre was retold to Dyason by another childhood friend of his, Deas, who tells of a recent overland trip he had from Adelaide to the Bendigo Diggings.  Both Deas and Ludwick had been friends of Dyason's in South Africa and were used to 'native wars' there.  Dyason was born in England but was sent to live with relatives in South Africa at the age of 10.  He left there for Adelaide in 1850 aged 18, and then travelled to the Victorian Diggings in 1851 when gold was first discovered.  The massacre detailed below happened in the South Australian or possibly Victorian bush between Adelaide and Bendigo.  Note that 'Diggers' including Chinese 'Celestials' had been taking this route for at least 6 years - with tensions no doubt rising on all sides.
 

Sunday 2^nd May 1858. Went to Lithgow’s to borrow Argus – L. told me of Deas & party when

coming overland being intercepted by blacks – one of the party was abt a mile

behind the others & the blacks in body of abt 600 or 700 [allow for exaggeration]

got in between them & came on in form half moon, the man who was

behind, dashed them at full speed & as he went thro’ killed a black on

each side his horse with a double barrelled pistol – then, instead of getting

away to his party, who was coming down to his assistance at full speed

he reined up & charged thro’ again, killing other two - & then turning came

again towards his party, again killing – the blacks at this took fright

& before the other whites could come up – had all disappeared in bush –

I hear that smallpox has shown itself at Ballaarat – Home – Read Argus

bed @ 10

An episode of ABC’s “You Can’t Ask That” which sees Aboriginal people asked questions that would be culturally inappropriate usually.Published on Jan 19, 2016 Is Australia really a multicultural safe haven of equal opportunity? Or is racism more prevalent than ever before? Stan Grant took to the stage for the last IQ2 debate of 2015. His speech is widely acknowledged to be one of the most powerful ever heard at IQ2.

The diary entry below relates to a massacre in 1857 / 1858 of the Narangga people who live near the Ngadjuri described in Ruby Moonlight.  Mr Pearson's great grandfather (Dyason) was the 25 year old diarist and his mate, Ludwick - the perpetrator of the massacre, had been a childhood friend of his...    Towards the end of the entry Dyason uses the word 'nicely' - not in the sense of 'lovely nice' but rather as 'fit for purpose - a nice fit' - and of course there is nothing 'lovely nice' about it.  Dyason cuts off the narrative abruptly with no comment - neither condoning nor condemning the act.

Friday 26^th Feb. 1858  Rose abt 7 breakfast called on Inglis S^d he thought abt 9^d in £

would be dividend – made out rough inventory on state of Fishers stock.

dined went over & yarned with Lithgow – told me that Ludwick had

when over on Yorke’s Peninsula, taken his sheep home – he & his mate

now alone keeping sheep on the peninsula – no men employed, nearest

station 25 miles - & having yarded them was surprised his mate did

not come down as usual – went up to the hut & there found him lying

with his brains knocked out [nice sight abt sundown – nobody within

25 miles] mounted his horse, rode away for assistance, followed up trail

of natives & found them within a creek, & found articles on them which

proved them to be the culprits - & Lithgow says, he “believes they didn’t

leave a man, woman, or child alive – having caught them nicely in a bit

of peninsula”.   Green came over from Dunolly today – called with Mr...

At the time of transcribing this diary, Mr Pearson found the following information regarding the people in the area where this massacre occurred.  There were no reports of massacres in the newspapers of the day - it was after all, illegal, so the whites were not going to report it...